10 Most Artless Movies of All Time, Ranked

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The vast majority of movies that are released, even those that are wildly ripped apart by audiences and critics alike, have at least some artistic value and merit imbued within them. With so many different creatives working on a film, many films, even if it's only one specific element, have an attribute within them that helps elevate the film to a natural artistic standard. While this is widely the standard perception for most film releases, there are often times when a film accomplishes the opposite and was seemingly created with no semblance of artistic merit present.

These films enter a distinct style and allure of artistic failure, where their very lack of artistic merit itself defines the experience and aspects of the film itself, giving it a completely different type of merit. Whether it be low-budget catastrophes that simply didn't have the capabilities to create an artistic vision or sleazy knockoff films only created to make a quick buck with no artistic merit, there are many ways that a film can accomplish the sad, painful feat of being completely artless.

10 'Birdemic: Shock and Terror' (2010)

Directed by James Nguyen

Shock and Terror' swats at a bunch of fake-looking CGI birds with wire hangars

A low-budget riff on the Alfred Hitchcock classic, The Birds, Birdemic: Shock and Terror's chaotic execution and editing style has made it an infamous target of mockery as one of the defining so-bad-it's-good movies of the digital era. The film sees a small town suddenly being thrust into chaos and pandemonium when various eagles, vultures, and all other avian creatures begin attacking the populace in an act of revenge. A small group of survivors attempts to escape, seeing people turn on each other as they attempt to uncover why the birds have turned on humanity.

There are many bafflingly confusing decisions made in the creation of Birdemic: Shock and Terror that feel as though they come from a place of pure ineptitude and inexperience, where the only logical reaction is one of laughter and befuddlement. This ranges from small, budgetary issues like stilted camera angles, jarring microphone quality, and the absence of any lighting, to major editing choices like the titular Birdemic not appearing until halfway through the movie. While its constant issues have made it devoid of true artistic merit, it has achieved a new life as one of the best so-bad-it's-good movies.

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Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Release Date February 27, 2010

Director James Nguyen

Cast Alan Bagh , Whitney Moore , Janae Caster , Colton Osborne , Adam Sessa , Catherine Batcha , Patsy van Ettinger , Damien Carter , Rick Camp , Stephen Gustavson , Danny Webber , Mona Lisa Moon , Natalie Yonkers , Laura Cassidy , Bonnie Steiger , Eric Swartz , Zoya Shybkouskaya , Cameron Palmer , Milan Lee , James Z. Feng , James Nguyen , Justin Osborne , Thomas Cokenias , Steve McMoy , Daniel Mai

Runtime 94 minutes

Watch on Amazon Prime

9 'Foodfight!' (2012)

Directed by Lawrence Kasanoff

A notorious animated disaster that achieved its levels of low quality due to an array of financial issues and a destructive production cycle, Foodfight came out at the other end with unnerving visuals and constant soulless product placement. The film takes place in a special supermarket where all the various icons and brands for sale come to life and live in a thriving community at night when the store is closed. However, when the evil Brand X enters the store with plans to take everything over, it becomes up to Dex Dogtective (Charlie Sheen) to put a stop to their evil plot.

As if its unsavory 3D visuals weren't enough to deter audiences, Foodfight's constant and repeated usage of real-life brand mascots such as Mr. Clean, Charlie Tuna, and Mrs. Buttersworth makes it feel more like a commercial than a cinematic experience. Nearly every aspect of the film is dated in some way, from a cast consisting entirely of faded 2000s stars to its style of humor being drowned in problematic caricatures and offensive stereotypes.

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Foodfight!

Release Date February 12, 2013

Director Lawrence Kasanoff

Runtime 91 minutes

Rent on AppleTV+

8 'Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas' (2014)

Directed by Darren Doane

Kirk Cameron talking to the camera in Saving Christmas

Kirk Cameron's amateurish attempts at creating a modern-day holiday classic for the more evangelical Christian crowd may have appealed to his more diehard fans, but it has nothing artistic to offer for anyone else. Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas follows a fictional Cameron hosting an annual Christmas party for his family, yet has to take a step back in the festivities to help his brother-in-law understand that Christmas is still a truly spiritual and all-encompassing holiday.

Saving Christmas only barely meets the minimum requirements of a cinematic experience, as it could more easily be compared to an extended essay and lecture about Cameron's thoughts on Christmas as a Christian institution. While his intentions may have been in good spirits and spreading Christmas cheer, the final result couldn't be more strange and offputting to the average viewer. The only remaining legacy that the film has held in the past decade is as one of the worst Christmas movies of all time.

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Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas

Release Date November 14, 2014

Director Darren Doane

Cast Kirk Cameron , Darren Doane , Bridgette Cameron , Ben Kientz , David Shannon , Raphi Henly

Runtime 80

7 'Troll 2' (1990)

Directed by Claudio Fragasso

Goblins walking through a film in Troll 2 (1990)

An infamously bad horror film whose comically over-the-top performances and strange visuals have made it an icon of so-bad-it's-good filmmaking for decades, Troll 2 is a true icon of disastrous horror filmmaking. The film sees a family going on vacation to the small town of Nilbog, with the young child of the family, Joshua, soon realizing that the town is filled with terrifying goblins. Aided by the spirit of his deceased grandfather, Joshua does all that he can to convince his dismissive family to leave the town before they end up as the latest victims of the goblin horde.

While the practical effects and story may not stray too far from the run-of-the-mill terrible creature feature of the 80s and 90s, it's all in the comically bad performances and editing that make Troll 2 a step above the rest. Line readings like the elongated screaming of "Oh my god!" and young Joshua realizing that Nilbog is goblin spelled backwards have left a permanent mark on the culture of trashy horror filmmaking.

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Release Date October 12, 1990

Director Claudio Fragasso

Cast Michael Stephenson , George Hardy , Margo Prey , Connie Young , Robert Ormsby , Deborah Reed

Runtime 95 minutes

6 'The Amazing Bulk' (2012)

Directed by Lewis Schoenbrun

A large, purple man known as The Amazing Bulk standing in the middle of a city alleyway in 'The Amazing Bulk' (2012)

Low-effort mockbusters that exist only to siphon profits from largely successful studio films have always been a part of the filmmaking industry, yet they massively exploded in prevalence and notoriety during the 21st century. It's hard to see artistic merit in any of these bargain bin scams, yet films like The Amazing Bulk prove to go above and beyond in terms of pure cinematic failure. Acting as a blatant ripoff of Marvel's The Incredible Hulk, the film sees scientist Henry Howard injecting himself with an experimental superhuman serum that transforms him into the powerful and unstoppable Amazing Bulk.

The Amazing Bulk is a clear display of the significantly lowered barrier to entry for feature-length filmmaking in the digital era, feeling like the cinematic equivalent to someone's first art project and toying around with all the tools in After Effects. The constant green screens and cartoonish visual effects make for a jarring disconnect that creates more unintentional comedy to its amateur execution. It manages to be a great time as one of the most rewatchable so-bad-it's-good movies, yet it doesn't come close to resembling an actual piece of cinematic artistry.

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The Amazing Bulk

Release Date April 17, 2012

Director Lewis Schoenbrun

Cast Jordan Lawson , Shevaun Kastl , Terence Lording , Randal Malone , Juliette Angeli , Jed Rowen , Deirdre V. Lyons , Mark E. Fletcher , Mike Toto , Meghan Falcone , Matthew Barnard , Mandell Anthony , Mark Stuver , Read MacGuirtose , Ford Austin , Julianne Bianchi , Art Roberts , Marc Chamberlain , Derek Lui , J. Matthew Welker , Mark Todd

Runtime 75 minutes

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5 'Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny' (1972)

Directed by R. Winer

'Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny' is a completely weird Christmas-themed musical fantasy.

While initially seeming like just a low-budget Christmas film, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny quickly reveals itself to be one of the strangest and most poorly conceived films of the 70s. The film sees Santa getting his sleight stuck in the sands of a Florida beach in the days leading up to Christmas, enlisting the help of local children and the Ice Cream Bunny to help get it unstuck. To act as words of encouragement for the children, Santa ends up telling the story of Thumbelina to help lift their spirits, with the film playing the entirety of the producer's previous film, including its original credits, before returning to the main film.

Of all the baffling decisions and strange little intricacies that make up the worst films of all time, no other film has been so blatant in padding out the runtime by simply playing another movie in the middle to pass the time. The adaptation of Thumbelina present in Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny manages to be twice as long as the actual Christmastime story being told, in a shocking betrayal of trust to the audience and their respect.

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Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny

Release Date November 18, 1972

Director R. Winer

Cast Jay Ripley , Shay Garner , Pat Morrell , Ruth McMahon , Heather Hughes

Runtime 96 minutes

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4 'Manos: The Hands of Fate' (1966)

Directed by Harold P. Warren

A man spreading his arms in Manos the Hands of Fate

One of the true classics of so-bad-it's-good filmmaking and often considered to be one of the worst movies of all time, Manos: The Hands of Fate is the cinematic equivalent of a moldy, rotten fruit that had been forgotten about and left to fester for decades. The simple story of a family getting lost on the road and taken in by a cult of devil-worshiping sadists quickly reveals its hand with an array of jarring editing decisions, comically bad performances, and an overall aura of rancid cinema.

The strange, poorly executed quirks and elements of Manos that make it such a cinematic travesty are also the same elements that have given it a deep and memorable stature for decades as an icon of trashy filmmaking. It's one of very few egregiously terrible films where the story behind its creation manages to be just as strange and befuddling as the film itself. Even among other so-bad-it's-good films, Manos proves to be one of the most heinous and poorly executed attempts at filmmaking of all time.

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Release Date November 15, 1966

Director Harold P. Warren

Cast Tom Neyman , John Reynolds , Diane Adelson , Harold P. Warren , Stephanie Nielson , Sherry Proctor , Robin Redd , Jackey Neyman Jones

Runtime 70 Minutes

3 'Ratatoing' (2007)

Directed by Michelle Gabriel

Marcell Toing stirring a pot in Ratatoing

One of many low-effort mockbusters of widely popular animated movies during the 2000s, the very absurdity and nonsensical nature of Ratatoing gave it an unexpected spotlight as the face of modern mockbusters. Blatantly paralleling Pixar's masterpiece, Ratatouille, Ratatoing similarly follows a rodent chef with large dreams of being an all-time great chef. However, the film's Marcell Toing has already achieved his dreams of success, being the owner of a highly coveted restaurant for rodents in Rio de Janeiro, and spending the nights sneaking into human kitchens for ingredients.

As far as titles are concerned, Ratatouille does more than simply sound similar to the word rat, but relates to the main dish at the climax of the film, in which all of its themes are centered around. By comparison, Ratatoing does not mean anything, it's a nonsense word made up by the filmmakers to sound loosely similar to Ratatouille, which is simply all that one needs to know to understand the film's lack of quality. Ratatoing is about as soulless as animated films get, easily being one of the worst animated films of all time.

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Ratatoing

Release Date June 26, 2007

Director Michelle Gabriel

Cast Douglas Guedes , Elisa Vilon , Sidney Ross , Claudio Satiro , Francisco Freitas , Raul Schlosser , Fernanda Padilha , Cláudia Victória

Runtime 44 minutes

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2 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' (1957)

Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.

The zombified Inspector Clay, played by actor Tor Johnson, carries an unconscious Paula, played by actor Mona McKinnon, in Plan 9 from Outer Space.

One of the first true masters of egregiously terrible filmmaking, Edward D. Wood Jr. found himself at the center of many exceptionally awful films during his tenure as a filmmaker, with none as infamous or reviled as Plan 9 From Outer Space. The confusing and nonsensical sci-fi horror film follows a group of aliens who arrive at Earth in an attempt to stop humanity from creating a doomsday weapon that threatens to destroy the universe. To accomplish their plan, the aliens enact their deadly "Plan 9", involving the resurrection of the undead, in hopes that the chaos will force humanity to listen to them.

Plan 9 From Outer Space makes no effort to hide its minuscule budget from the audience, actively falling apart at every moment and coming across like an amateur home video instead of the work of an experienced director. The entire experience quickly devolves into chaos and confusion as it goes on, as amateur mistakes like the visible shadow of a boom microphone further dilute the film's intended terror and purpose. It's a film that constantly one-ups itself in terms of mistakes at every opportunity, in a sense becoming a masterpiece of artistic failure.

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Release Date July 22, 1959

Director Edward D. Wood Jr.

Cast Gregory Walcott , Mona McKinnon , Duke Moore , Tom Keene , Carl Anthony , Paul Marco , Tor Johnson , Dudley Manlove , Joanna Lee , John Breckinridge , Lyle Talbot , Conrad Brooks , Maila Nurmi , Bela Lugosi , Criswell , Edward D. Wood Jr. , David De Mering , Norma McCarty , Lynn Lemon

Runtime 79 Minutes

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1 'The Room' (2003)

Directed by Tommy Wiseau

Tommy Wiseau as Johnny sitting on the roof in 'The Room' (2003)

Often considered the most legendary and iconic so-bad-it's-good movie of all time, Tommy Wiseau's The Room has revolutionized the very concept and elements behind terrible filmmaking in its own strange, unique way. The unassuming drama of a man whose seemingly perfect life begins to spiral downward as his closest friends and family betray his trust proves to be anything other than just a simple drama. The film has reached such a substantial notoriety thanks to its lack of quality that many people can quote and relay sequences without ever having seen the film.

Wiseau's vision and abilities as a filmmaker (or lack thereof) transform The Room into a strange, otherworldly experience that feels as if it were created in another dimension where filmmaking conventions were completely different. Confusing editing decisions, repetitious and obnoxious pacing in its relatively simple storytelling, and some of the funniest line readings of all time have made the film an unforgettable experience for all the wrong reasons.